Anushka Sharma sits down, kicks off her heels, and — in what I know now as her jaunty manner — slaps the table.

We’re having dinner at Wasabi by Morimoto, the actor’s “favourite restaurant in the world in Mumbai”, and she orders a whole bunch of food without glancing at the menu: two kinds of carpaccio, avocado and wasabi tacos, miso marinated black cod with garlic rice.

A little later, Christian Louboutin will stop by our table to say hello, startling Sharma, who struggles to find her abandoned pair of shoes — serendipitously, spiked nude Louboutins — while attempting to stand up and offer the virtuoso shoe designer advice on what to order.

This is not without its complications: he doesn’t eat fish. After the episode plays itself out, I can’t help but join her in the five minutes of laughter that follows.

Sharma’s father, a retired Indian army colonel, believes that people are the polar opposite of the way they appear in public. If we were to follow this hypothesis, his 24-year-old star daughter is a neat, solemn, supremely organized young woman who knows exactly what she’s doing.

The impression fits her. No other actor under 30 today has had a career trajectory quite like hers: a debut opposite Shah Rukh Khan with Yash Raj Films, the country’s biggest film production company; a chance to showcase her spunk with a memorable role in Band Baaja Baaraat (2010) soon after; films with movie magicians such as Yash Chopra and Vishal Bhardwaj, and those with Rajkumar Hirani and Anurag Kashyap in the pipeline.

There are murmurs of a project with Steven Spielberg too.

Little Miss Sunshine

At 10.30pm, after an entire day of shooting on a yacht with Vogue, Sharma has the sort of jack-in-the-box bounce that makes me think she’ll be only too ready to take me up on a triathlon right now.

It also makes it easy to dismiss the anorexia rumours she’s been dogged by — she is far too energetic to be ill. She goes over her plans for the next day: an early morning visa interview, getting her hair re-styled for film continuity, day-long readings for Kashyap’s forthcoming Bombay Velvet and dance rehearsals for her performance at the first MTV Video Music Awards in India.

Of course, today isn’t over yet — she’s going halfway across town for the rehearsals after this. Sharma makes up for lost sleep while getting from one place to another, she explains. “I’ve made this little bed at the back of my Range Rover. I’ve mastered the power nap.”

The girl’s a trooper. And an occasional mischief-maker — like the time she and her brother Karnesh, four years her elder, put colour in the water tank of their house to fool their parents. It was her idea entirely.

“I’m a boys’ girl! I come from an army background and I haven’t known what being a ‘good Indian girl’ means. My childhood has been a blur of coming back from school and heading straight to the nearest army club [for] a lot of sports — swimming, basketball, tennis, badminton — and chicken lollipops and soft drinks… Did you know the army makes their own soft drinks? They’re the best!”

She also concedes to being a compulsive liar while on holiday. “I was in St Ives recently and some people at a bar asked me what I did. I said I was a writer… and then I got really carried away with it and made up this elaborate backstory. First book was an overnight success. Riddled with writer’s block over my second. Now I take pills, travel and write for newspapers…”

As the stories flow, it is occasionally difficult to keep up. I find it hard to believe she had to be trained to talk fast for her role as the feisty wedding planner in Band Baaja Baaraat. But it isn’t just about the staggering speed at which her words pour out (she says it’s “nervous energy”).

In a span of two hours I’ve met many different Miss Sharmas: She is truly committed to acting. She would give it all up for a new passion. She loves shopping for shoes. She detests shopping. She digs Japanese food. She doesn’t eat sushi rolls. Cooking is therapeutic. She doesn’t cook.

Anushka Sharma might have many different selves, but there’s at least one avatar that reigns supreme right now: the diligent actor.